Rules for Thought #40 – Tying Cannon Accuracy to Range

[Ben]

Now that the Rules survey has some results (44 responses as of this post), I think it would be a good idea to discuss some various options in detail.  Last RfT thread for now!

-Inspired by carronade page (under Range) – let all cannons fire at any range, but make the ranks constant.  Must roll 2 or 3+ to hit at S range, but 4 or 5+ to hit at L range.  Could also make it somewhat dependent on the ship’s actual cannons.

In this way, ships wouldn’t have cannons with S or L range.  They could fire at either range depending upon where their target was, with less accuracy for targets outside of S range.  You could even take it a step further and give every ship the sniping ability to hit opponents at S+S or L+L range on cannon rolls of 6.

It could be either fixed for all ships, or mixed (probably better but more confusing).  For example, all ships in the game can hit on a 3 or higher if the target is within S of the cannon, but they need a 5 or higher to hit at beyond S range.  Perhaps those could be the base shooting rules, but in a mixed scenario, cannon ranks would provide exceptions – a ship with rank-1 cannons could hit on 2’s at S range, while a ship with rank-4 cannons can only hit targets within S with rolls of 5+.

This is just a rough concept, feel free to give any ideas you have on it.

[Fitzroy_McCandless]

I always love anything that makes shooting in this game more dynamic but I would want ships to have some seperate range options, clearly showing some ships as close range brawlers or quick snipers. I like the idea of reducing accuracy for a long shot, something along the lines of “double this cannon’s printed range and reduce it’s accuracy to 5. Roll two D6, you must choose the smaller number. If the canon’s accuracy is already 5, this ability may not be used.” This way ships that already have the extended range ability aren’t negated. I also thought of adding equipment for build costs at the begining of the game. Say you upgrade a gun on one of your ships for an additional build point or two to increase accuracy or range.

[Ben]

“double this cannon’s printed range and reduce it’s accuracy to 5. Roll two D6, you must choose the smaller number. If the canon’s accuracy is already 5, this ability may not be used.” This way ships that already have the extended range ability aren’t negated.

I think it would be easier to just give all ships the Sniping ability, rather than rolling 2 dice.   Extended Range should already work with the Sniping ability of hitting on a 6 with doubled range, since Sniping does not refer to printed ranges.

I also thought of adding equipment for build costs at the begining of the game. Say you upgrade a gun on one of your ships for an additional build point or two to increase accuracy or range.

I’ve thought about that, but mostly for in-game improvements during campaign games.  Perhaps a ship shoots very successfully and her cannons drop in rank as a result – the gun crew gaining experience.  Cannoneers, musketeers, and cannon bonus abilities mostly take care of increasing firepower during fleet building.

[Woelf]

I don’t think there’s any clean or universal way to retrofit this onto the game as it is, at least not without breaking several things along the way, but it would have been a cool feature to have baked into the design from the start.

There are lots of ways you could do it. Die result ranges where you you have to roll increasingly higher to hit at longer distances would be a simple general way to handle it. You’d lose most of the existing cannon rank distinctions using a system like that, but you could simulate it to some extent by giving bonuses (or negatives) to ships at specific ranges. A powerful warship might get +1 at short and medium ranges, while a runner might get a -2 at long range and -1 at medium range.

Another way (or even another layer on that same system) would be to use different dice for each range. For example, say you always need a 5+ to hit regardless of range. Most ships would have a D6 for short/mid ranges, but better ships could use a D8 or even D12 up close, while less capable ships might drop down to a D4 for longer ranges so they can’t hit at all without an extra boost of some sort. Another might get to roll 2D8 and pick either result at close range.

With varying dice, or varying rolls, you could even work defenses into the system more naturally. Maybe a ship could only be hit by rolls of 7+, or they ignore all hits from D8s.

[Author]

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